Church Creek — Saturday, Jun. 24, 2000

Olympic Peninsula > Olympia

A small group of us decided to explore a couple of the more obscure trails in the Olympics this past weekend. One of those was Church Creek, which traverses a portion of the Chapel Peak Unroaded Area. Alas, this area has not been inventoried by the Forest Service like the neighboring Upper Skokomish Roadless Area, and consequently will not be protected after the President's current roadless plan is completed. By all means then, come visit this place and advocate for it. We set forth at the eastern trailhead in the Skokomish watershed. The 600 spur of road 2361 that leads to this trailhead looks as if it has not been maintained in several years. The left turn-off is easy to miss. If you see the Church Creek Shelter trailhead on the right side of the road, you've come about one-quarter mile too far. Alder is beginning to crowd out the 600 spur, and several large rocks are about. My little sedan made it 1.5 mile up this road and stopped where a semi-repaired washout was too steep to get past. A 4WD could probably make it the entire 2 miles to the trailhead, though. The best bet, it would seem, would be for the Forest Service to convert this stretch in its entirety to trail, and have hikers access it from the main 2361 road. True trail begins at the first switchback of the road. A partially hidden sign is present to reassure that one is in the right place. The trail immediately plunges into gorgeous ancient forest, with a nice diversity of tree species as it transitions from lowland to montane. Monster Douglas-firs and western hemlocks tower above, complemented by western red cedar, Pacific silver fir, and later Alaska Cedar. The beauty is in marked contrast to the opposite slope of the valley, however, where the trees have been clearcut all the way to the Church Creek streambed (a tragedy). Switchbacks then take one out of the valley bottom and over a pass into the Wynoochee watershed, near Chapel Peak. The trail's tread has seen some fairly recent work over much of its length, though downed trees from the winter must periodically be climbed over or crawled under. The trail is also quite steep in places. En route during the initial ascent, it crosses a closed road that has been re-contoured to better resemble the natural slope. This work also appears to have been done fairly recently, as the old road bed is still devoid of any vegetation. Although crossing even a closed road can be a bit of a letdown, the Forest Service should be applauded for obliterating it, and should be encouraged to do the same elsewhere. Upon reaching it, one should follow the roadway to the right for approximately 75 yards, then pick up true trail again off to the left. Cairns mark the way. The descent from the relatively low pass (3150') goes by a pretty waterfall and journeys past more big trees, eventually reaching upper Satsop Lake, a salamander paradise. No one else was around, despite the lake being a mere .3 mile from the western trailhead. The sun was hot, so we went for a nice swim in the chilly water. The surrounding landscape of this area reminded of the Three Lakes region of Olympic National Park. After a pleasant lunch, we hopped back up and over the roughly four miles to our resting vehicles.